6 Unique Halloween Pumpkins to Inspire Your Own Holiday Creations

When it comes to finding the inspiration you need to create a stunning Halloween pumpkin, most people simply turn to stencils. While carved, stenciled pumpkins look great and can be appreciated for the time and effort they took to make, they really aren’t unique or creative. They come from the mind and imagination of someone else. If you really want to make your holiday decorating special and memorable, your decorating efforts need to come from your own heart.

Creative pumpkin decorating ideas – The type of creativity that can actually win a pumpkin decorating contest or set your holiday party and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decorations apart from the rest don’t just appear. Their birth often results from looking at the work of others and then allowing the materials within your own environment to talk to you. Here are 6 unique Halloween pumpkins that can help spice up your own Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas décor.

Pumpkin Man

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This little fellow took some serious carving, but the foundational idea is simply a spin-off from Frosty the Snowman. Instead of rolling snow into two huge snowballs, you can use a couple of giant pumpkins to resemble a snowman. Most of this pumpkin man is scraped rather than carved. Scraping obviously makes the process quicker and easier. You simply chisel off the orange skin rather than trying to cut through the hard, raw flesh of the pumpkin. This is one case where using stencils might not be a bad idea.

If you’re not into carving, that’s okay. Decorating a winning pumpkin doesn’t have to be difficult. You can use permanent markers, paint, rolling eyes from a craft store, buttons, eyes and eyelashes cut out of construction paper, or large oak leaves for ears. You can dress him or her in your favorite hat, place a shawl around its neck, give it summer floppies for feet, or glue cotton balls all over its head for curly, white hair. You can even paint the pumpkins white for a winter decoration that will last throughout the holidays. The idea is to make your pumpkin man uniquely your own.

Cheeseburger Pumpkin

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If carving or even timely decorating isn’t your thing, you can simply cut the pumpkin in half and make it look like your favorite burger. This unique and creative holiday table centerpiece would make a great conversational decoration as the focal point for a teen party or for someone who just can’t live without their cheeseburgers. Fill it up with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and even some red barbecue sauce.

Not into burgers and fries? Then simply adapt it to resemble your own favorite treat or the overall theme of your party. If you slice off more of the pumpkin and paint it golden brown, you can turn it into a chocolate chip cookie. Paint it brown, white, or pink and turn it into a scoop of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry ice cream. You could even make it resemble a banana split.

Decked Out Pumpkin

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If you’re short on time and just want a nice Halloween pumpkin display, sit your tween daughter down at the kitchen table with a box of old jewelry, some left over sewing supplies, a handful of artificial flowers and greenery, and a small hot-glue gun. In no time at all, she’ll have a couple of pumpkins decked out in style. You can glue a small flower and greenery arrangement on the top, use a string of old pearls for the mouth or hang them around the neck. With clip earrings for ears, some nice jewelry pieces for the eyes, gold braided eyebrows, and glitter sprinkled freely, you’ll have a creative pumpkin that will really dress up your living room or porch.

For a nice Christmas look, spray the pumpkins in red and green and decorate them to resemble a Christmas present rather than a face.

Jack O’ Lantern in a Box

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This little cutie would make an adorable centerpiece or Halloween display. While it takes a little bit of sewing know-how, a visit to your local craft store can often give you easier ideas. Switch out the fabric legs and feet for something more in line with your creative ability. Craft stores often sell doll parts, and the hands can simply be made out of cheap gloves filled with cotton.

If you cover the box in some of last year’s Christmas paper, line it with holiday material, and fill it with crunched up garland, you could even turn this Jack O’ Lantern into Santa. All he needs is a red Christmas hat, a white cotton beard, a black belt and boots. If you have small, sweet pumpkins, you can paint them white and turn them into a snowman or winter display. Even a Thanksgiving turkey made from a pumpkin cut in half, painted brown, and decorated with feathers would be different enough for holiday company to take notice.

M&M People

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It doesn’t take a lot of money to set yourself up with a prize-winning pumpkin idea. These M&M pumpkins are simply painted and decorated with M&M faces. Arms and legs are merely paper cutouts allowed to dangle at will. You could place a sign in their hand by using a thin stick or place the stick behind them and cut the sign into a shape that lets viewers know the sign’s wording is revealing their thoughts or attitude.

For Thanksgiving, merely sit them in front of a cornucopia or autumn display. For Christmas, you could plop a Christmas hat on their head or give them an angel’s halo by twisting golden pipe cleaners or wire that you then dangle above their head.

Candy Corn Pumpkin

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For a startling, yet impressive holiday look, this Halloween pumpkin takes advantage of traditional Halloween candy corn to give the appearance of fur. Simply cut out the eyes, nose, and mouth, and then hot glue the candy in place. This will be a bit time consuming, but the result is a memorable, creative look. You could do the same thing with other types of holiday candy, but don’t limit yourself to just orange. For Thanksgiving or Christmas ideas, using wrapped salt-water taffy, red and green M&Ms, silver-wrapped kisses, or even some crushed candy canes applied with spray adhesive would give a startling overall effect and provide a great base from which to add your own unique touch.

You don’t even have to use candy for the covering. For a less costly version, wrap your pumpkin in yarn, strings of colorful beads, strips of holiday crepe paper, fabric strips, or cover the whole thing in glitter or crushed sea shells. An extra-special creative touch would be to glue some curling ribbons onto your candy pumpkin for hair, use giant pushpins to hold paper or fabric arms or legs in place, top it with a Chef’s hat, and maybe place a toy rolling pin in its hand to imitate a holiday baker. You can even cover the entire pumpkin in flowers and greenery if you like.

Creative Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

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The object isn’t to copy what someone else has done exactly, but to use those ideas as a springboard to ignite your own inner creativity. Whether you’re looking to win first place at your local pumpkin decorating contest, set up a nice centerpiece for your Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas party, or just create a memorable living room or porch display for any of the winter holidays, these 6 unique Halloween pumpkins can get your creative fires burning. Just remember that when you carve or scratch a pumpkin, it’s likely to begin molding within a couple of days, so you’ll want to cook it up before it molds.

If the 6 decorated pumpkins above are not enough to spark your creativity, take a look at the follow video. It offers up a wide variety of pumpkins that were entered into a Halloween pumpkin decorating contest.

Fantastic Pumpkin Decorating Contest Entries

Get Loads of Additional Ideas

Don’t spend a lot of time looking for that perfect pumpkin shape. An irregular pumpkin shape will add to your pumpkin’s personality and enable you to come up with a more personalized, creative pumpkin decorative look. Pumpkins often disappear from the stores around Thanksgiving, but they will last for weeks if you decorate them rather than carve them. That way you'll be able to make delicious pumpkin breads and desserts for the holidays. In addition, most of the decorating items you need are probably already in your own closet, drawer, Christmas decorations box, or kitchen.